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May 08, 2017
What is your real job?
Writing novels, I knew from the beginning, was going to be tricky when it came to making $$$$ but I was, of course, going to write an instant bestseller and live in a mansion with six poodles. The reality ...
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June 26, 2021What Makes a Good Writing Routine?
As I mentioned in a previous post, I'm fascinated by other people's writing routines. Not only am I just a somewhat nosy person (as many writers are, I imagine), but I don't have much in the way of a ...
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June 26, 2016What Thrills Amy Stuart?
As suddenly as the publication of my first book made me a writer, I started to see Amy Stuart everywhere, which was such a great stroke of luck for me.She's warm and quick and smart. She listens so ...
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September 21, 2020What Timothy Findley Taught Me
Unfortunately, it isn’t often that a major biography of a Canadian writer is published. Such a book takes years to write and costs the author a great deal, not only in work time but also in research ...
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March 12, 2020What Wolves Are You Missing? How Writing Communities Improve Our Writing
“The Yellowstone river is healthier today than it was in 1995. The wild part about this positive ecological trend (which cuts against so many other ecological trends in the world) is that we understand ...
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May 08, 2020When My Mind is Frenzied, I Don’t Read—I Listen
Being read to is a luxury.Growing up, there were no bedtime stories in my household, at least none that I can remember. There were true stories traded around dinner tables of course, but there was none ...
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November 30, 2020When old ways, thoughts, beliefs, and people no longer serve you
“Every moment is a fresh beginning.” —T.S. EliotLately I have been thinking about the act of releasing the things in my life that no longer serve me. When I revise a piece of writing, the first ...
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June 07, 2023When Readers Write
Whenever I do a book event, people tell me things. Sometimes they tell me a bit about themselves or their families. At other times, they disclose traumatic experiences. I respond by holding the moment, ...
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September 01, 2020When Your Father is Your Biggest Fan
I don’t believe that any father was more proud of having a son for a writer than my own dad. Whenever I met somebody who knew him—it might be a waiter in a restaurant—the person would say, “Oh, ...
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January 03, 2017Where Are the Classmates Now?
I met Rebecca Rosenblum in the Advanced Fiction Writing class during my undergrad in Creative Writing - at Concordia University, in Montreal. But Rebecca did not go to Concordia - she went to McGill - ...
